After Being Watched by My Paranoid and Gloomy Deceased Wife - Chapter 16

The window frame was rattled by the wind, and water droplets from the grass and the watering system were rolled up and plastered to the window, with a rustling and dripping sound.

Shadows condensed under the bed, ink-like, guarding the bedside, as if they could swim away at any time.

The bathroom door made a slight noise as it was blown by the wind, and then the bedroom door quietly opened a crack, allowing a cool breeze to slip through.

In a daze, I felt a slight chill on my back.

As I turned over, a breeze slipped into the quilt, sticking to my back, as if something was clinging tightly to me, wrapping around me without any gap.

I woke up again in bed.

I vaguely felt that I had forgotten something, only remembering that after lunch I went out to take out the trash and ran into the little girl who had previously thrown the tassel pearl from the hairpin at me.

What was her name?

Oh, Ai Jiaxin, quite an uncommon surname.

Later, we drank milk tea, and then I returned to Xi Rong’s house, and then—

My head was splitting, like countless needles were pricking my scalp. Rubbing my temples, I simply stopped trying to think further.

This symptom was a sequela of the car accident.

Even though I had countless check-ups, switched between major and minor hospitals, sought medical help both officially and privately, the only diagnosis I got in the end was the catch-all “neuralgia.”

I always feel like I’ve slept too much today, each time feeling like I’ve had a blackout from drinking, with memories being vague and many parts missing.

This bed is like entering a strange rule-world, and I am the NPC who gets refreshed in bed every time, entering an endless loop of sleeping and waking up.

Reaching out, I grabbed the phone on the bedside table, checked the time, and quickly got out of bed.

I didn’t have time to overthink; if I didn’t leave soon, I would miss the time I agreed upon with Xi Rong.

I don’t want to hear her rant angrily again, even though she is the one who misses appointments more than anyone else, although her reasons are always excusable.

I went straight to the bathroom and put on the clothes and pants that had been dried… Strange, when did I wash them?

My nose twitched, and I smelled a faint scent of bl00d. I looked down at the clothes I was wearing, but couldn’t see anything.

I dislike light-colored clothes because they show dirt easily. Although I change clothes every day, I usually wear dark colors.

Because I’m too casual with myself, Guan Lan sent me two new outfits a while ago. I don’t quite remember the style, they were light-colored. I took them out, washed them, but hadn’t planned on wearing them yet.

Before going out, I habitually washed my hands, and in the mirror, I saw my face.

The corner of my lips was slightly cracked. Maybe it was the dry weather and I hadn’t applied lip balm, and now that the dead skin came off, it cracked.

I licked the wound, and there was indeed a faint smell of bl00d.

It seems it was a false alarm. I lifted my collar to smell, but couldn’t quite tell where that faint scent of bl00d came from.

Out of the corner of my eye, a dark shadow flashed across the mirror, and my heart instantly leaped.

I nervously looked back, only to realize it was the shadow of the tree outside the window, stretched by the evening light, swaying into the mirror.

Phew, a false alarm.

What am I overthinking all day? I cursed myself in my heart for being too jumpy.

I looked at the shadow again. The shadow was illuminated by the light into a short section, making it hard to see anything clearly.

My heart was anxiously unsettled; I didn’t know what I was afraid of.

If everything returned to normal, it should be a good thing for me.

I quickly rushed out and hailed a taxi. It took a while for someone to accept the order.

The rush hour traffic was somewhat congested, the flow of cars moving slowly, and the long wait at traffic lights made people feel irritable.

Bored, I didn’t know what to do and aimlessly watched the stream of people outside the window.

In the reflection of the car window, a beautiful woman with long hair slowly turned her head.

The phone looks really nice.

I quickly lowered my head, and with trembling fingers, tapped into the order details.

After aimlessly swiping through over a dozen pages, I realized something.

The time on my orders was wrong.

The previous page was two years ago, and the next page was five years ago, with only a few sporadic orders.

What about the three-year gap in between?

Didn’t I need to take a taxi?

As my finger lightly slid across the screen, waiting for the next page to load, my heartbeat grew louder and louder, as if some secret was about to be revealed to me.

I felt my ears being uncomfortably rattled, so I rubbed them and tucked my stray hair behind.

Out of the corner of my eye, a pale, blurry face in the car window was staring right at me, expressionless.

My breathing stopped. I moved closer to the other side until the seatbelt constrained me, pulling me out of my fear.

When I looked closely again, the reflection in the car window was clearly myself.

One person scaring another is terrifying.

Especially when I’m scaring myself.

Realizing it was a mistake, I let out a sigh of relief, and my gaze drifted to the shadow on the other side.

It had become less active.

The shadow cannot speak, and I cannot communicate with It, yet I can always inexplicably understand Its emotions.

Everything was indeed a hallucination.

I saw my pale face in the rearview mirror of the car. My lips were so light they were almost white, and my eyebrows were dark, like an overexposed black and white photo.

It looked somewhat like how I saw myself in the mirror Xi Rong brought me when I was hospitalized after the car accident.

Back then, my head was still wrapped in gauze, and I could only sit in a wheelchair. My brain, having suffered a concussion, was foggy, and my thinking was slow and sluggish.

When Xi Rong spoke a sentence to me, it took me a long time to understand.

That period was the most gentle Xi Rong had ever been to me since childhood.

Once that opportunity passed, it was gone. Now, it’s impossible for her to speak a few kind words to me.

Now that I think about it, besides the morning when Xi Rong coughed and cried, when she visited and took care of me in the hospital, her eyes were also always red and swollen.

She must have been secretly crying, thinking she was pretending well, but I had noticed, even though my mind was slow to process.

She gave me a mirror and the first thing she asked was—

“Lulu, do you… still remember me?”

No matter how slow I was, I wasn’t knocked into an idiot. Even if my body was weak, I had to voice my opinion.

“Xi Rong, are you sick?”

And then she surprisingly didn’t get angry, but looked at me with that sad and distressed gaze, as if I didn’t have long to live.

She even said, “It’s good that you’re okay. It doesn’t matter if you don’t remember, maybe it’s better not to remember.”

“Lulu, you must be well.”

Her attitude made me very nervous at one point, suspecting that I had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and was critically ill.

Later, when I teased her about it, she always looked at me with a sad gaze, as if I wouldn’t understand.

This woman is too good at manipulating people. With her acting like that, I couldn’t possibly bring it up again.

Even though I was curious about why she was so unusual, I couldn’t really poke at her wound.

The flashback ended, and I stopped looking in the rearview mirror.

I couldn’t help it; I’m actually not very brave, and for the first time, I felt I looked scary.

I secretly pursed my lips and opened the phone’s front camera. My lips finally regained a little color.

Ah, that’s better.

On the phone screen, there was the shadow of a slender finger near my cheek, the fingertip resting on the crack on my lip.

I only then realized the air conditioning in the car was a bit cold. Rubbing the goosebumps on my arm, I really couldn’t bear it anymore.

“Master, could you turn up the air conditioning a little?”

The driver’s voice was a bit shaky; he was probably cold too.

“Little sister, the air conditioning is at $28^circ$C. If you’re cold, how about we open the window for ventilation?”

I had no objection, “Then Master, please turn off the air conditioning.”

Saying that, I pressed the button and opened the window. As the car window rolled down, the summer heat and hot wind blew in together, and the chill receded.

I heard the driver and me both sigh in relief. After that, neither of us spoke again.

Even with the window open, there was still a hint of coldness in the car, but it was much better than before.

I rubbed the goosebumps on my arms, but there was nothing else I could do.

Fortunately, the KTV Xi Rong booked wasn’t far.

When I arrived, Xi Rong was already there, and there was one more person present whom I found somewhat familiar but couldn’t recall.

The song playing was paused. The unfamiliar, thin woman looked at me, tears welling up before she spoke.

No, what’s going on?

I looked at her, then sized up the private room, confirming that I was in a KTV, not the set of some melodrama.

Xi Rong gave me a look, and the rotating colored lights flickered across her face.

“Is your eye twitching?” I walked over to her and asked in a low voice.

“Screw you.” Xi Rong quietly cursed me, then walked towards the woman.

The thin woman looked very sad. Her cheekbones were slightly high, her jawline sharp and clear, and she looked as if she was enveloped in a shadow.

Maybe because she was too thin, her eyes looked bigger, which made her look a bit eerie when she looked at people.

I struggled to recall this person in my memory.

It’s better to copy the answer directly than to solve the problem myself, so I chose to ask Xi Rong directly.

“Who is this?” I quietly nudged closer and whispered to her.

Xi Rong was in a low mood. The thin woman was like the embodiment of sadness, standing there, making others feel sad too.

“She was your university roommate. Don’t you remember?” Xi Rong asked me.

“You two were the closest in university. I was even jealous of her, thinking you were going to be fickle.”

What kind of description is that? Am I the type of person who easily tires of the old and takes up with the new?

Before I could retort, Xi Rong tilted her head to look at the woman, her voice very low, almost hoarse.

“She is Zhang Ruo’an. Zhang with the ‘bow’ radical, Ruo’an as in ‘if you are well’.”

Zhang Ruo’an?

The admirer Guan Lan mentioned, who, after I rejected her, turned to pursue Guan Lan?

The Zhang Ruo’an who posted strange things on her Moments, was more in need of psychological counseling than me, and had a tendency for depression?

And she was my best university classmate?!

The thin woman walked closer to me. Her eyes drooped, giving her a somewhat melancholic look. She lifted her lowered eyes to look at me.

She meticulously and repeatedly scrutinized my face, looking at my hands and feet, as if my four intact limbs were something incredibly moving, which made me feel very strange.

“Lulu…” Her voice was hoarse, as if she hadn’t spoken for a long time.

I looked at Xi Rong, trying to seek her help, but saw she was already busy.

This woman who always had something to do was busy putting on disposable microphone covers and busily tearing open and plating the snacks.

What kind of person is this, just leaving me like this?

“Ahem, yes.”

I didn’t know what to say, feeling a bit awkward.

“Uh, welcome to Xizhao?”

The dazzling lights of the KTV fragmented the shadows on the floor. I couldn’t see the long-haired shadow looking this way.

“Are you okay?” Zhang Ruo’an asked.

What could be wrong with me?

“Ah? I’m great.” Out of politeness, I also asked her, “How about you?”

Zhang Ruo’an looked at me. She was standing in a spot where the light had just disappeared, like a sculpture in the darkness.

“Not so good,” she said.

In the noisy and colorful light and shadows, the shadow was silent like an isolated island or reef.